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I'm sorry to hear about this. Hiring manager perspective here. First of all, no, it's not a common practice to train on bad candidates specifically. I have never heard of this and it doesn't make sense to me. Given how many candidates with solid resumes do not pass interviews, there's no need to waste time on obvious no-fits for training purposes. Many companies don't do any any sort of interview training. Those that do, in my experience, train via multiple rounds of shadowing. Regarding feedback, almost no companies provide it. Perhaps the recruiter was new, perhaps the hiring team thought you won't take feedback well, perhaps something else. I don't think jumping to "willing to lie to my face" is the right way to think about it. Also, just because the interviewers were pleasant doesn't mean you were doing well. Perhaps there was a lot more to the problem and you weren't going to solve it all on time - again, hard to say, but you certainly can't judge by the interviewer's demeanor. When I was hiring, I wanted all the candidates to have a positive experience, even when they did not do well. Finally, I'll be honest - you do not come off very well based on this message. It is extremely adversarial, makes a ton of assumptions, and has unrealistic expectations. This approach in fact is a lot less likely to result in feedback, because the company likely picked up on it and is not interested in debating the results with you. The decision has been made, I would suggest taking a breath and moving on. Acing the technical part is absolutely not a guarantee of hire. I have passed on brilliant candidates when the team gave multiple indicators that the person would be difficult to work with. To be clear, I'm making assumptions here as well and it could very well be that something else is going on. But it would serve you well to introspect a bit and approach the process in a more positive, or at least detached, manner, without making it personal. |
I think all your points are very valid, and I maybe should have made it more clear that I am not trying to dwell on this and more looking for honest feedback.
I would defend myself and say that I am quite a pleasant person all around, so I doubt it was that, and the only feedback I was given, was that all the interviewers had really enjoyed their chats with me and hoped that I applied in the future. I had no adverserial interactions with any in the team and I ended every interview saying that if I didn't make it to the next one I fully understood and that I was happy to have gotten this far.
I would also say that the person I was calling is headlands head recruiter and when on the phone she repeatedly said that she would ask the team and forward the feedback to me. I fully understand the game theory of not giving any feedback, both to leave the door open and to avoid spending more energy on a candidate you have discarded, but it's the two faced way of repeatedly saying it over the phone and then immediately turning around over text.
This is overall a positive message, this means that I must have made some sort of technical mistake and that I can correct for this next time. In my eyes that is the version of reality I am hoping for.
Once again, thank you so much for the honest and realistic feedback!